Favorite Books: Communist Chinese Children's Book

When I was a kid my mom and I lived in San Francisco for a year while she attended art school.  At some point during that year I acquired this book in Chinatown, which I loved for it's beautiful illustrations.  It wasn't until I was in college and a friend's Chinese fiancé freaked out when I lent him this book, that I realized that it had a communist message.  (He freaked out with excitement and nostalgia because he knew the book).  Little white rabbit learns a valuable lesson about how selfishness is dangerous and everyone benefits from thinking of the greater good.  Whatever, I still just like the pretty pictures.

Gathering Mushrooms ©1977, Story and drawings by Tzu Chiang, Chiu Yi, and Ku Ping  Foreign Languages Press, Peking.

And just for a little more Friday fun, this is me turning five at Chinese kindergarten, San Francisco, 1979.

Favorite Books: John S. Goodall picture books

I've had children's books on my mind lately because I'm trying to put together a selection of some of the my old favorites to give to my best friend for her new baby.  I'm a book lover, for certain, and I've kept quite a few of my old books.  In honor of October being National Book Month, I thought I'd post about some of them throughout the rest of the month.  I'm going to start with children's books.  You'll quickly see a theme as the days pass-- highly detailed illustrations!

I have at least three of these small picture books by John S. Goodall.  They had absolutely no words, which allowed you to narrate your own story.  The full size pages alternated with half pages, so that as you turned the smaller pages the action of the story unfolded. 

Paddy Pork sets off on his adventure...

... he doesn't get far without needing a rest.  That's one fat pig thinks the little rabbit.

In this book Nancy, an Edwardian mouse, must take part in her older sister's wedding, and Nancy misbehaves throughout the entire day.  I particularly like the detail of the nervous groom, shaking away at the altar.

Paddy Pork's Holiday ©1976,  and Naughty Nancy, ©1975, both by John S. Goodall, A Margaret K. McElderry Book, Atheneum, New York.

Scenes from Saturday

I always like those "day in the life" type posts, so here is one from my Saturday.  Be forewarned, it's not exciting-- I barely left the house!

9:00 AM -- Looking for green beans.

9:30 AM -- The day's harvest.

10:00 AM -- Coffee and decorating books in Mom's living room.

11:00 AM -- Frugality.  Hand washing another small oriental rug.  I was agitating the water by stomping on it. 

12:00 PM -- While the rug was soaking I caught up on an episode of Charlie Rose.  That's Bret Easton Ellis discussing his newest novel Imperial Bedrooms, which follows the same protagonist as Less Than Zero, but 25 years later.  Less Than Zero was one of the first rated R movies that I wanted to see in the theater, so I have a sentimental spot for it.  Somehow my friend Sarah and I convinced our moms that it was appropriate for 12 and 13 year olds.  (And compared to movies now it was pretty tame).  I never read the book, but this interview certainly made me curious.  I'm now on the library wait list for both books.

1:00 PM -- Lunch was straight from that garden harvest.  

2:00 PM -- The rug rinsed and drip-drying on a fence.

5:00 PM -- I discovered a stash of posters that decorated my rooms in college and I took them out to the studio so I could pin them all up and see what I had.  I have comments about them all, but I actually think I'm going to do a whole separate post about art, posters, etc.

8:00 PM -- Out for dinner in honor of my uncle's birthday.  This Thai restaurant on the west side has the best spicy Drunken Noodles in town (imho).

9:30 PM -- Embarrassing, but I sort of love the Rachel Zoe Project and never get to watch it since I don't have cable.  When I saw that the Season 3 premiere was on Hulu, I jumped at the chance.  

10:30 PM -- Then for something a little more intellectually redeeming I snuggled up in my favorite chair to read a few chapters.  I've been reading classics that my formal education seemed to have skipped this year-- like Anna Karenina, Robinson Crusoe,  and The Painted Veil.  I did read Wuthering Heights in high school, but got the bug to read it again.  Man, I really didn't remember what a bastard Heathcliff is.  How did this story get the reputation of being a romance?  I've spent the whole time thinking about how nice it would be if he were struck by lightening while out on the moors.

And that was it-- with visions of child abuse dancing in my head it was off to bed.  It was a lovely relaxing day!

Book shelf: Currently Reading

From the top: The Lost Boys (dvd), Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, What We Eat When We Eat Alone: Stories and 100 Recipes, My Mother's Clothes, Restoring a House in the City, and Inside Cuba (Taschen).

I treated myself to a stack of books last week, and they are now sitting on the shelf awaiting my attention. Just one library book to finish and then I'll start in on these. I LOVE new books! This stack is just about perfect (although it's lacking fiction... I've been getting that via the library lately)-- part decor/renovation, part gardening, part cooking, a little bit of fashion, and a classic movie from my youth. This photo was snapped before the entire order had actually arrived, it also included The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook: A Year in the Life of a Restaurant, and a Footloose/Flashdance dvd. (The dvds are for a bachelorette weekend that I'm soon to attend-- favorite movies from our childhoods being part of the entertainment-- The Lost Boys was my pick, Flashdance for the bride).

An inside shot from Restoring a House in the City. I still don't have a scanner, so sorry for the wonky photos.

From Inside Cuba. I recently got one of the Inside Africa books, and am now on a mission to acquire as many as I can of this series. Totally inspiring to look through.

And inside What We Eat When We're Alone. The illustrations in this book were half of what made me buy it-- very charming.